Across the stories today, a common thread emerges: the planet is speaking in signals — some subtle, some deafening — and the question is whether our institutions can listen fast enough to act.

Start with the signals themselves. El Niño has surged to record strength weeks ahead of schedule, and its fingerprints are already visible — from Hurricane Polo’s explosive intensification in the Pacific to the climate volatility rippling through global weather systems. In the UK, an aphid outbreak wiped out 30 million lettuce heads almost overnight, a small but telling example of how shifting conditions can upend food systems in ways no one budgets for. In Malawi, an unexplained weed overgrowth has choked Chia Lagoon, stranding farmers and fishers in flooded fields nearly seven months after the rains should have drained. These aren’t isolated oddities. They’re the planet’s early warning system, written in crop yields and clogged waterways.

Then there’s the human response — uneven, but not absent. Germany’s landmark pledge to phase out fossil fuels by 2045 marks a rare moment of policy catching up to urgency, moving beyond vague “carbon neutrality” language toward something more concrete. The UK’s decision to declassify a once-suppressed intelligence report — warning that climate breakdown is a direct threat to global security — suggests governments are quietly acknowledging what scientists have said for years, even if political will lags behind. And at UN climate talks in New York, amid what The Guardian describes as a genuinely grim mood, solar power’s continued growth offered rare, tangible hope. As Al Gore noted twenty years after An Inconvenient Truth, he’s surprised by the ferocity of fossil fuel pushback — but still believes, cautiously, that the fight can be won.

Behind the numbers are real communities adapting in real time. In the Andes, villagers near Villa de Arma are turning to ancient wetland systems as glaciers they once walked across vanish into bare rock. In Guam, resident Leevin Camacho learned his family’s water contained a pesticide banned since 1987 — a stark reminder that militarization and environmental cost are often intertwined, especially in the Pacific. And in Sarawak, Indigenous communities are still reckoning with displacement from the Bakun megadam three decades later, a cautionary tale as the world races toward a “clean” energy future that doesn’t always ask who pays for it.

It’s a reminder that progress and pressure often arrive together. Endangered birds on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula won last-minute protection from a rocket launch site — a genuine conservation victory — even as a Norfolk Broads housing levy was quietly slashed, raising fears that environmental safeguards elsewhere are eroding. Meanwhile, olive ridley sea turtles nesting for the first time ever on California beaches offer something rarer: wonder. A signal, too, but one that invites curiosity rather than alarm — proof that the natural world is still capable of surprising us.

As the week unfolds, all eyes will be on whether momentum from Climate Week — bolstered even by a monster from Sesame Street reminding children it’s okay to feel both fear and courage — translates into follow-through. The data, the disasters, and the small human stories all point the same direction: the era of asking “if” is over. What remains is the harder work of “how fast,” and “for whom.”

The post Hurricane Polo Explodes in Pacific, UK Aphid Swarm Wipes Out 30 Million Lettuces, Glasgow Braces for Rubbish Pileup — Today’s Environmental Briefing for Thu, Sep 24 2026 first appeared on EnviroLink Network.

As climate experts gather in New York this week for another round of high-stakes negotiations, the mood is grim. This year is on track to set a new global temperature record, and next year could break it again as El Niño intensifies. The planet has lurched from one disaster to the next: deadly European heatwaves, catastrophic flooding in Nepal that has erased entire communities, and unsettling new research suggesting the Atlantic Ocean’s major current systems may be approaching a dangerous tipping point. Despite the mounting evidence and urgency, political will to act remains stubbornly weak.

Yet amid this bleak landscape, there is one source of genuine optimism: solar power. Unlike political negotiations, which move at a glacial pace, solar technology has advanced rapidly and become dramatically cheaper, making clean energy more accessible than ever before. Advocates are now pushing world leaders to commit to an ambitious but achievable goal — bringing solar power to every corner of the globe by 2030.

The road ahead won’t be easy. Confronting entrenched fossil fuel interests and inertia among the powerful takes courage. But there’s a unifying truth that cuts through the complexity of climate politics: every person on Earth lives under the same sun. That shared reality, advocates argue, can become a source of collective strength — a reminder that the tools to address the climate crisis already exist and are within reach, if only the political will can catch up with the technology.

The post Amid Climate Gloom at UN Talks, Solar Power Offers a Rare Ray of Hope first appeared on EnviroLink Network.

Since the debut of Garrett P Serviss’ 1898 novel “Edison’s Conquest of Mars,” space-based warfare was relegated to the imagination — but no longer.

In an address on the “State of the Space Force” on Tuesday, reported by Space.com, chief of space operations for the US Space Force General Douglas Schiess informed the public that the Pentagon has definitively deployed active space-based weapons platforms.

“Let me be crystal clear: today, Guardians operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the joint force against space-enabled attacks,” Schiess said. “Space is both a battlefield and the backbone of our joint force.”

Schiess stopped short of providing any details about the weapons, instead sharing a war story of one Space Force operator named “Specialist Gray.”

“Even as alarm red sirens were blaring and incoming missiles targeted her site, she courageously held the line, protecting forces, denying adversary capability, and delivering space effects until her commander had to literally pull her from the console to safety,” Schiess recounted with a dramatic flair. “She locked onto the target, optimized her weapon system and waged electromagnetic warfare against a determined adversary.”

As Space.com notes, those descriptive elements may point to a kind of non-physical platform, like a signal jammer or a microwave emitter, though it’s anyone’s guess what weapon “Specialist Gray” was supposed to be operating.

The news came just ahead of the Space Force’s request for over $71 billion in additional funding for 2027, adding to the over $100 billion it’s already been allocated, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported.

Evidently, the orbital-weapons announcement was meant to give that absurd request some extra oomph — which, if granted, it would represent the single highest one-year budget adjustment received by any US military branch since 1952.

More on space: NASA’s Powerful New Space Telescope, Just Cleared for Launch, Was Developed by an Intelligence Agency to “Spy on America’s Adversaries”

The post Space Force Chief Admits the US Is Actively Utilizing Orbital Weapons appeared first on Futurism.

The Conservatives want to brand Burnham’s administration as a ‘traditional tax and spend socialist government’

In a news release issued ahead of his speech this morning, Andrew Griffith, the new shadow chancellor, gave details of some of the questions he wants the experts he has asked to review small business regulation to address. (See 8.58am.) He said:

[Craig Mackinlay and Robert Colvile] will produce a report taking evidence from small business and self-employed organisations. While they will have a wide remit, they will consider in particular these key questions, and report in December:

-Why have past attempts to reduce the regulatory and compliance burden on small business and the self-employed failed, and what specifically should be done to reduce the burden successfully?

This is staggering. Our socialist Chancellor has dished out a big Bank of England finance job to a socialist union boss who knows nothing about finance.

Clearly, trade union donations not only buy your way into government policymaking, but also onto the Bank of England’s board. This is cronyism in plain sight.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

The SuperC consortium aims to develop a room-temperature superconductor, a discovery which would deliver enormous energy savings. What’s

Engineers at compact fusion company nT-Tao have brought a 50-megawatt pulsed-power subsystem into active service. The hardware delivers high-energy bursts to the company’s C3 prototype, a machine designed to test magnetic confinement in dense plasma regimes.

This installation marks a critical step toward exceeding 1.5 million degrees Celsius, the highest thermal benchmark recorded on the platform to date.

Injecting large bursts of electricity into an ionized gas triggers severe circuit instability. As the plasma heats up during each pulse, its internal electrical properties fluctuate within fractions of a millisecond. These rapid swings alter the electrical impedance of both the plasma and the delivery hardware.

“The power must also be controlled precisely as the electrical characteristics of the system and the plasma change rapidly during each pulse,” said the company in a press release.

If the supply fails to match these shifts instantly, electrical resonance breaks down and the gas reflects energy back into the driving circuits. To prevent this loss, nT-Tao paired the 50-megawatt unit with a proprietary real-time nonlinear control system.

Nonlinear real-time tuning

The controller tracks circuit changes during the pulse and updates operating parameters continuously. This active tuning maintains resonance throughout the discharge, ensuring maximal energy transfers into the plasma core under fast-varying conditions.

CTO and co-founder Boaz Weinfeld pointed out that generating 50 megawatts is relatively straightforward compared to the task of coordinating 50 separate modules in real time. The primary engineering accomplishment lies in forcing multiple units to function as one synchronized circuit.

The physical power supply expands the company’s Modular Energy Generator Architecture, known as MEGA. The setup distributes the power load across 50 compact units called Power Electronic Generators (PEGs), rather than relying on a single, large power source. Each PEG produces approximately 1 megawatt of output.

Technicians grouped these generators into ten parallel branches, placing five parallel-wired modules on each branch. The complete network operates across switching frequencies between 50 and 2,000 kilohertz.

“It represents a roughly five-fold scale-up from an earlier generation that integrated 12 PEGs into an approximately 10 MW system,” added the company.

Hardware scalability and recent milestones

Using 1-megawatt modules provides practical manufacturing and operational advantages. Technicians can connect modules in series or parallel arrangements to meet specific circuit requirements. According to Weinfeld, fusion systems that cannot be produced at scale will fail commercially. Standardized, repeatable modules keep the physical footprint compact and allow capacity growth without redesigning core hardware.

The 50-megawatt power feed supports a broader strategy to turn plasma physics theory into viable, compact reactor hardware. Assembly took two months, with the machine reaching operational status and firing initial plasma pulses in January.

That testbed followed an earlier experimental series with the C2-A machine, which registered plasma temperatures around 100 electronvolts, or about 10^6 degrees Celsius.

By combining modular power electronics with high-speed nonlinear controls, the team has established the electrical drive required to push plasma past those early milestones toward commercial reactor temperatures.

“Together, the 50 PEGs and the real-time controller form the power architecture subsystem intended to deliver large amounts of energy to the plasma in precisely controlled pulses, moving nT-Tao closer to its next temperature milestone on the path toward a commercially viable compact fusion system,” concluded the company.

Data centers don’t just undergird the avalanche of AI slop polluting our social media feeds — they’re spewing an awful lot of physical slop as well.

On top of the noxious air pollution, as well as the occasionally bacteria-laden wastewater discharge, data centers are responsible for a rising tide of forever chemicals, artificial substances which never degrade naturally.

According to new reporting by The Guardian, nearly all of the top ten global producers of forever chemicals, otherwise known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, plan to ramp up production quotas on the back of the data center boom.

There’s a clear market demand for this: PFAS play a huge role in data center construction, where they’re used in cooling systems, AI chips, circuit boards, and fire suppression systems — not to mention the coating on thousands of miles of cables used to connect these components together.

Though components laden with PFAS are found throughout the industrial world, their use in data centers is particularly troubling. Because these facilities run almost non-stop save for the rare pause for maintenance, their components break down remarkably quickly, which means data center owners are constantly scrapping old parts in favor of new ones.

When those old components are tossed to the curb, the PFAS will almost inevitably wind up in the environment, increasing the likelihood that they wind up in the food chain. When we eat contaminated plant and animal products, these forever chemicals accumulate in our body, where they may contribute to a laundry list of debilitating health problems.

“These companies’ expansion plans show that unless governments and regulators insist on a rapid phaseout, we will face a new tidal wave of forever chemicals,” Anne-Sofie Bäckar, executive director of Swedish chemical watchdog ChemSec, told The Guardian.

Of course, PFAS are far from the only toxic discharge attributable to the AI data center boom. On Monday, the Gothamist reported that nearly 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel had somehow spilled out of the Equinix Data Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, flowing directly into a tributary creek in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

As Climate Revolution Action Network executive director Ben Dziobek told the Gothamist, it’s proof that data centers harms extend far beyond their property lines.

“Leaving this [data centers] to individual towns doesn’t make any sense,” Dziobek said. “Data centers create problems that don’t stop at municipal boundaries, whether it’s pollution or straining the grid and driving up everyone’s electric bills.”

More on data centers: The Economics of Data Centers Creating Jobs Are So Bad That They Sound Like a Joke

The post Data Centers Are Causing a Huge Surge in Incredibly Toxic Chemicals Polluting the World appeared first on Futurism.

Across the stories today, a common thread emerges: the boundaries we once drew around “the environment” — between land and sea, sky and orbit, economy and ecology — keep dissolving, revealing how deeply intertwined these systems have become.

Start with the sky, in more ways than one. The US government’s confirmation that it has deployed a weapon in Earth’s orbit marks a genuine turning point, not just for defense policy but for how we think about the commons above our heads. Space has long been treated as neutral ground; now it’s becoming contested territory, raising quiet but urgent questions about debris, escalation, and what “environment” even means when it extends past the atmosphere. Meanwhile, back on solid ground, the UK’s climate advisers delivered a pointed message to Heathrow: a third runway cannot proceed unless airlines help pay for the emissions it would unleash, potentially through carbon removal costs. It’s a small but telling signal that growth and climate accounting are becoming inseparable in policy conversations — expansion is no longer a given, even for infrastructure long considered inevitable.

That tension between growth and limits runs through much of today’s coverage. A Guardian analysis found that the world’s twenty largest private equity firms back energy portfolios emitting more greenhouse gases than all but three countries on Earth — a stark reminder that climate accountability often hides behind layers of finance most people never see. In Venezuela, a US-backed push for “legitimate” mining and a new oil megadeal are drawing warnings from environmental and human rights groups who see familiar risks dressed in new language. And in Guinea-Bissau, industrial fishmeal factories are quietly hollowing out a food fish that coastal communities have relied on for generations. Behind the numbers are real communities adapting in real time — from Vietnamese fishers losing thousands of dollars per vessel to tangled plastic waste, to Dhaka residents like Yeasmin Begum, who has spent her life breathing the smoke of a landfill she never chose to live beside.

Yet alongside these pressures, the day’s coverage also points to growing momentum around resilience and repair. Ukrainians are turning to rooftop solar to keep homes running amid bombardment — a portrait of adaptation born from necessity. A Congolese NGO now co-manages a national reserve for the first time, a homegrown model of stewardship. Moon bears rescued from bile farms are stretching their limbs in Suffolk enclosures, and three wild dog brothers wandered 2,500 miles across Zambia in search of a mate, offering an unlikely note of hope for their species. Even Griffith Park’s mountain lion — photographed beneath the Hollywood sign — helped inspire the world’s largest wildlife crossing, proof that a single image can shift infrastructure decisions.

It’s a reminder that progress and pressure often arrive together. Some communities are innovating their way through crisis; others, like the land defenders now forming self-defense units amid rising violence, are simply trying to survive it. As Brazil’s upcoming election looms over the Amazon’s future, and Chief Raoni Metuktire — one of its most storied protectors — enters palliative care, the coming months may reveal whether today’s momentum toward stewardship can outpace the forces pulling the other way.

The post US Confirms Orbital Weapon, Essex Wildlife Habitat Threatened by Data Centre — Today’s Environmental Briefing for Wed, Sep 16 2026 first appeared on EnviroLink Network.

Holcim, a global building materials and solutions company, has agreed to deploy two Joule Hive Thermal Battery units developed by Boston-based Electrified Thermal Solutions as part of its industrial electrification roadmap.

Announced on September 15, the agreement will allow the building materials company to evaluate electric heating technology for its high-temperature cement operations.

The batteries will store clean electricity as heat inside electrically and thermally conductive bricks.

That energy can then be discharged on demand at temperatures reaching 3,275°F, offering Holcim a potential route to reduce its reliance on combustion for industrial heat.

Electrifying one of industry’s hardest processes

Cement production requires process temperatures that regularly exceed the capabilities of conventional electric heating systems. As a result, combustion has remained the default means of generating heat across much of the sector.

Electrified Thermal’s technology is designed to address this limitation by converting electricity into heat and retaining it inside specially developed bricks. The stored thermal energy can later be supplied to an industrial process when required.

The initial deployment will include two Joule Hive Thermal Battery units. However, the companies did not disclose where the systems will be installed or when they are expected to begin operating.

“Electrifying high-temperature industrial heat is one of the advanced technologies we are incorporating in our decarbonization strategy, and this deployment allows us to evaluate its potential,” said Ram Muthu, Head of Operational Excellence at Holcim.

“Working with Electrified Thermal gives us a path to accelerate decarbonization as part of our industry-shaping sustainability roadmap,” he added.

From clean electricity to extreme heat

Industrial heat accounts for roughly one-fifth of global energy consumption. The processes requiring the highest temperatures, including those used in cement, steel and chemical production, have largely remained beyond the reach of existing electric alternatives.

By delivering temperatures of up to 3,275°F, the Joule Hive system is intended to bring electrification into this particularly difficult segment. The Holcim agreement also gives Electrified Thermal its third global industrial partner across the cement, steel and chemical sectors.

“Holcim’s decision to deploy our technology validates years of work to bring electrified heat to high-temperature industrial-scale applications that no other technology or company can achieve,” said Daniel Stack, CEO and co-founder of Electrified Thermal Solutions.

“This agreement follows the recent turn-on and successful 1,000+ hours of operation of our commercial demonstration system and shows that global industrial producers are ready to move this technology from demonstration to deployment. We look forward to expanding this relationship with Holcim over time,” he added.

Moving beyond the demonstration stage

The agreement builds on an existing relationship between the companies, with Holcim also participating as an investor in Electrified Thermal Solutions.

It follows the commissioning of Electrified Thermal’s commercial demonstration system in San Antonio, Texas, earlier in 2026. The megawatt-scale installation has completed more than 1,000 hours of operation, according to the company.

The Holcim deployment will now take the technology from demonstration toward use by a major industrial producer. Both companies are also evaluating further opportunities to deploy the thermal battery across Holcim’s operations.

The Trump Administration has rolled back a major climate rule, falsely claiming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants do not impact the climate or human health.

The House Judiciary Committee will consider the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act as the Trump administration moves to roll back federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Holcim will deploy two batteries from the startup Electrified Thermal Solutions to cut down on fossil fuels, which often supply the intense heat in cement-making.

The US energy landscape is changing quickly. Demand for artificial intelligence is driving up power demand while electric vehicle (EV) adoption slows down and enters a more complex phase. Together, these trends are reshaping how utilities, policymakers, financiers and automakers respond to emerging challenges in the energy sector.

The world’s 20 largest private equity firms are bankrolling energy portfolios that pump out 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually, a new report reveals — a carbon footprint larger than every country on Earth except China, the United States, India and Russia.

These firms collectively oversee a staggering $7.3 trillion in assets, giving them enormous influence over how quickly, or slowly, the world moves away from fossil fuels. With that kind of financial firepower, they could be leading the charge toward renewable energy. Instead, many continue pouring money into natural gas plants and coal-fired power stations, some of which are being built specifically to feed the electricity-hungry datacenters that power artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

The findings highlight a growing tension at the heart of the clean energy transition: as demand for computing power explodes, so does the pressure to generate more electricity fast, and fossil fuels remain the quickest option for many investors. Critics argue that private equity firms, largely operating outside the public spotlight and free from the shareholder pressure that public companies face, have less incentive to prioritize emissions reductions over short-term returns.

The report raises pointed questions about accountability in an industry that touches nearly every corner of the global economy but faces far less scrutiny than publicly traded corporations. As the climate crisis intensifies and energy demands continue to climb, watchdogs say the outsized emissions from these financial giants deserve far more public attention than they currently receive.

The post Top 20 Private Equity Firms Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Most Countries, Report Finds first appeared on EnviroLink Network.

Hanwha Aerospace has successfully completed a mock combat flight in South Korea of the Mojave STOL, a short-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft system (UAS) it is jointly developing with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI).

Hanwha Aerospace said the Mojave took off from the Republic of Korea Army's 513th Aviation Battalion airfield during the 2026 Defense Drone Technology Exhibition in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Sept. 16 and landed on a tank maneuver road. The aircraft then took off again from the site and returned to the airfield.

The Mojave is equipped with a 450-horsepower turboprop engine and high-lift devices, allowing it to take off and land within distances of 100 to 300 meters. During the demonstration, it took off in less than 200 meters and landed within a distance in the 100-meter range.

The Mojave can carry up to 1 metric ton of mission equipment. Depending on its equipment configuration, it can be used for ground attack, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, logistics transport and communications relay missions.

Hanwha Aerospace plans to establish R&D and production infrastructure for the Mojave in South Korea. The company aims to raise the share of domestic production to more than 70% once the aircraft enters mass production.

Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, SK Innovation, LS Cable & System and LS Marine Solution unveiled power and energy technologies aimed at addressing the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and the energy transition.

The companies are participating in the 2026 World Climate Industry Expo (WCE), held at BEXCO in Busan from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics showcased heat pumps and high-efficiency appliances, while SK Innovation presented integrated power solutions for AI data centers. LS Cable & System and LS Marine Solution displayed power grid technologies for transmitting large amounts of electricity.

Samsung Electronics unveiled its "EHS All-in-One" heat pump, which provides cooling, heating and hot water with a single outdoor unit. The company also displayed AI data center cooling solutions developed in collaboration with FläktGroup, which it acquired last year, as well as central heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) products for large buildings. It also introduced SmartThings-based energy management technology and appliances with the highest energy-efficiency rating.

LG Electronics showcased high-efficiency residential solutions centered on its air-source "LG Therma V Heat Pump Boiler." The product generates about four to five times as much thermal energy as the electricity it consumes. LG Electronics also displayed air conditioners and washer-dryers incorporating heat pump technology, as well as an e-paper display that consumes more than 99% less power than conventional digital signage.

SK Innovation unveiled an integrated energy solution for large-scale electricity consumers including AI data centers. The solution combines renewable energy, battery energy storage systems (BESS), small modular reactors (SMRs) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) combined heat and power generation based on customers' electricity demand. SK Innovation had secured a global renewable energy pipeline of about 5.3 gigawatts (GW) as of the end of May this year.

LS Cable & System and LS Marine Solution introduced a "one-stop integrated power grid" connecting renewable energy generation sites with electricity consumers. They displayed submarine cables that transmit electricity generated by offshore wind farms to land and superconducting cables for high-capacity power transmission. LS Cable & System has commercialized 500-kilovolt (kV) high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable technology, while LS Marine Solution has experience installing HVDC submarine cables.

LS Cable & System also unveiled recyclable polypropylene (PP) cables and "CuFlake," a new copper material for copper foil made from copper scrap. The company also introduced resource-circulation technology that recycles cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation from discarded cables.

Electronics and energy companies are expanding related businesses in response to rising power demand driven by the growth of the AI industry and the energy transition. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are focusing on reducing energy consumption in homes and buildings, while SK Innovation is targeting power generation and storage, and LS Cable & System and LS Marine Solution are focusing on transmission infrastructure.

New owners apply for permission to extract oil in Horse Hill despite landmark ruling from supreme court in 2024

After years of trying to dig for oil in Surrey, the company behind the drilling project that was turned down in a landmark supreme court ruling has sold off the site for a fraction of the money it spent on it, and rebranded as a clean energy company.

Meanwhile, the new owners, who picked up the site for £1m, are applying, once again, for permission to dig.

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© Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Premier describes deal as ‘major win’ that will deliver more jobs for the state and put more energy into its grid

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Anthropic, the AI company behind the large language model Claude, has done a deal to lease the site of its first Australian datacentre in western Queensland.

The $31.9bn datacentre will be the largest of its kind in Australia, according to planning documents.

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© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

A Wisconsin battery materials company has secured a $1.25 million US Department of Energy contract to scale production of an anode material designed to reduce reliance on mined graphite and improve how lithium-ion battery systems track their charge.

COnovate will use the 24-month development contract to advance commercial-scale production of its eCOphite anode material. The award comes through the DOE’s Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator Program.

Unlike conventional graphite anodes, eCOphite is positioned as a graphite alternative that can be used as an additive with existing anode materials. The company says the material can be produced domestically from renewable feedstocks and does not require mining.

The technology is aimed at a specific problem in lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. These batteries have a relatively flat voltage curve across much of their usable range, making it harder for battery management systems to determine how much charge remains.

New graphite alternative

COnovate says eCOphite can introduce a durable voltage reference point into the battery. That additional signal could allow existing battery management systems to estimate state of charge more accurately as a battery operates.

More accurate state-of-charge information can help battery operators monitor systems and manage battery packs over longer operating periods. The company says this could improve system visibility while reducing downtime, warranty exposure, and costs associated with maintenance and battery augmentation.

The $1.25 million award is focused on scaling and qualification rather than simply developing the material in the laboratory. COnovate says the work will help qualify eCOphite at commercial scale and demonstrate its compatibility with existing battery manufacturing infrastructure.

“This award is an important step toward qualifying eCOphite material at commercial scale and strengthening a domestic supply battery materials supply chain,” said Craig Rigby, President and CEO of COnovate.

The company says its approach is intended to make adoption easier because manufacturers would not necessarily need to redesign their existing production infrastructure to use the material.

Battery controls get sharper

The technology is based on graphene monoxide, which COnovate describes as the basis of its eCOphite anode material. The company says it holds patents covering the development and commercialization of products for the lithium-ion battery industry.

The domestic production angle is also central to the DOE-backed project. Graphite is a key battery material, and securing alternative sources and production methods is part of efforts to strengthen US battery supply chains.

Under the contract, COnovate will continue scaling US production while working toward commercial qualification of the material. The project is supported by the DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation under Award Number DE-EE0011730.

For LFP batteries, the company is targeting an issue that is less visible than energy density or charging speed but important for operating battery systems: accurately knowing the remaining charge. By adding a measurable voltage reference, eCOphite is designed to give battery management systems another signal to work with.

As minister says process needs to be ‘streamlined’, Greens and Lock the Gate say the legislation is ‘corrupt’ and tears up environmental protections

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Queenslanders’ right to object to mining projects – including coal – would be “gutted” by new legislation that would ban opponents from being heard in court without the minister’s approval and then only if they owned a property within a 125km radius of the project.

The Greens have called the move “corrupt” and community action group Lock the Gate Alliance said the state’s LNP government was “tearing up democratic and environmental protections just to make life easier for mining companies”.

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© Photograph: Fairfax Media/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fairfax Media/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fairfax Media/Getty Images